Hiring Business Intelligence Professionals
(originally published by the Business Intelligence Network) by Maureen Clarry
The basic principles of supply and demand pertain to a company’s ability to recruit and retain business intelligence (BI) professionals. My company has been CONNECTing (forgive the pun) data warehousing and business intelligence professionals with consulting and employee positions since 1992. During this 15-year span, we have certainly experienced the cycles of both 1) more-demand-than-supply of qualified resources, and 2) more supply-than-demand of qualified resources. Based on predictions for 2007, get ready! Organizational demands for business intelligence capabilities will increase rapidly. This will make BI environments even more chaotic and the demands for hiring and retention even more significant. Good news for BI professionals that want to expand their careers!
To find and keep the best people, it takes an understanding of how to match the right person with the job - not just the one with the best technical skills. In their rush to fill open positions, managers can overlook that simple principle, resulting in a poor hire that causes more problems than it solves. There is also a tendency to hire people that remind us of ourselves rather than what the situation may really require. To get the best results, employers need a process that identifies employees who best fit your company based on facts, not just impressions.
Step 1: Define Your Process
What are the steps you will take and who in your organization will be involved in the selection process? Who is the final decision maker? Who has authority to make an offer? Who will review the resumes? Who will conduct the interviews? Who will be involved in interpreting the information gathered on the candidate? In Table 1, you will find a chart that lists the recommended steps and allows you to assign responsibilities to people inside your organization.
Table 1
Step 2: Understand Your Need and Culture
Your first step is to determine where you are and why someone is needed. The answer should reflect the driving business need and your staff’s abilities. As you look at your whole team, identify the skill gaps and overlaps and the knowledge base you want in your organization. When it comes to culture, be honest. If the position requires crazy hours and minimal supervision, be real!
Step 3: Define the Job Responsibilities
What are the key responsibilities for the new position? These can usually best be summarized as verb-noun phrases. For example: defining technical architectures, designing and implementing databases, interviewing business users, managing projects, or facilitating requirements definition sessions.
Step 4: Identify Required Skills and Experience
For each key responsibility, there are specific skills and experience required. Identify corresponding business, functional and technical skills, as follows:
Business Skills and Experience
How much should the new hire know about your line of business? It depends on the role: if you need someone to lead your requirements process, industry knowledge is a must. An ETL developer may not need any experience in your industry.Functional Skills and Experience
This describes the tasks the person has done before, such as project management, requirements definition, ETL architecture or dimensional modeling. Be sure you define each skill CLEARLY! For example, “project management” can mean different things, from informal coordination work to managing fifty people on a multimillion dollar project.Technical Skills and Experience
In a tight labor market, you must define the minimum technical skills required. An ETL developer with only a few months experience in a given tool might work out for a long-term project. But if facing tight deadlines, you will have to find an expert-level employee or consultant to churn through the work on time.
Step 5: Identify a Success Profile
In addition to business, functional and technical skills, define the success profile for your team. The success profile should identify the intRApersonal skills, intERpersonal skills, stress management skills, adaptability skills, attitudes and behaviors that are relevant for your environment. For examples of success profile skills, attitudes and behaviors, select from the list in Table 2. Example: For a person to be successful in this position, they must …
Table 2
Step 6: Prioritize Your Requirements
The more skills you have defined, the more difficult it is to find someone that is a 100% match. Force yourself to prioritize. List the critical factors so you can decide whether the candidate is “not a fit,” “marginal,” “adequate,” “good” or “ideal.” The more check marks in the “good” or “ideal” categories, the higher the candidate’s ranking.
Step 7: Define Relevant Interview Questions
Now that you know what you need, how do you measure a candidate’s fit for the success profile and your culture?
There are three styles of interview questions shown in Table 3 to help you determine their fit for the position.
Table 3
Develop questions that relate to each item in your description, including business, functional, technical and success profile items. Include a mix of skill and experience questions, self-evaluation questions and behavioral questions. See Table 4 for sample interview questions.
Table 4
Step 8: Structure the Interview
Establish Rapport
- Introduce yourself, create a comfortable setting and listen.
- Explain the interview format, goals and time limits.
Overview
- Communicate important information such as company strategy, role description, technical environment, etc.
Background Questions
- Learn about the candidate’s background through skills and experience and self-evaluation questions.
- Ask them what they want in a job and what unique attributes they bring.
Success Profile Questions
- Ask behavioral questions based on your criteria (i.e., questions that begin with “Tell me about a time when you…”).
- Listen for specifics (time, person event). Past behavior is predictive of future behavior only if the past behavior is recurring. An answer that relates a nice description of why it was important but does not recount a specific time, indicates that the behavior in question is not a recurring part of their experience.
Answer Candidate’s Questions
- Answer the candidate’s questions.
- If you don’t know the answer, determine who will follow up with the candidate.
Close
- Describe your next steps.
- Thank the candidate and end the interview.
Step 9: Interpret the Responses
For each question, you’ll need to interpret whether the response demonstrates evidence of the experience, skills, attitudes and behaviors you require. Did the candidate identify the desired approach? How effective was the outcome? Was the response a “cookbook answer”? How similar were the candidate’s experiences to the situations in your environment?
Step 10: Close the Loop
If you decide to hire the person, your internal process is probably well defined. However, if you decide to NOT hire the person, be sure someone closes the loop with the candidate. Your reputation and your company’s reputation are negatively impacted if the candidate doesn’t receive closure.
Maureen Clarry is the Founder and President/CEO of CONNECT: The Knowledge Network (CONNECT), a consulting firm that specializes in helping IT people and organizations to achieve their strategic potential in business. CONNECT was recognized as the 2000 South Metro Denver Small Business of the Year and has been listed in the Top 25 Women-Owned Businesses and the Top 150 Privately Owned Businesses in Colorado. Maureen also participates on the Data Warehousing Advisory Board for The Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver and was recognized by the Denver Business Journal as one of Denver’s Top Women Business Leaders in 2004. She has been on the faculty of The Data Warehousing Institute since 1997, has spoken at numerous other seminars, and has published several articles and white papers. Maureen regularly consults and teaches on organizational and leadership issues related to information technology, business intelligence and business.